


he built a fire just to keep me warm

by weasleysking



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bamon, Domestic Fluff, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Kissing, Mentioned Bonnie/Enzo, Mentioned Elena/Damon - Freeform, post season eight, you guys know im a hardcore delena but ugh bamon gets me going so much i love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-19 05:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29869836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleysking/pseuds/weasleysking
Summary: in an alternate universe where elena doesn't wake up; six months post the destruction of hell and the death of stefan and enzo, bonnie and damon are trying their best to heal together, as one.
Relationships: Bonnie Bennett/Damon Salvatore
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	he built a fire just to keep me warm

**Author's Note:**

> hey my fav readers!   
> actually, there's a chance this is a group of you that haven't read any of my other work before, as i've never posted a tvd fic despite to being my fav show of all time. so here's some heartwarming bamon that i hope you enjoy, and feel free to check out my other works!   
> hannah <33

Five years was a remarkably short amount of time for an immortal creature to exist. Damon Salvatore had spent five year periods in his life drunk on booze and blood, and it wasn’t until he’d met Elena Gilbert that time had slowed. It had slowed out of respect for their love; slowed for them to never take a moment for granted and to spend every minute they’d had loving each other. Time had slowed and it was pleasant, golden. 

It had slowed down horribly since the tragedy that was Alaric Saltzman and Jo Parker’s wedding. Time had slowed down for the worst since Elena had fallen asleep, since Damon had been told she wouldn’t wake until his best friend died. It had slowed even more since Stefan had met his end. Even thinking about it, years later, made him want to throw up. 

Yes, time had slowed into five agonizing years since Elena had fallen asleep, one since Stefan had died, and the only reason Damon had survived any of the moments of hopelessness when he thought perhaps the only way he could live was to turn of his humanity switch, the only reason he hadn’t lay down to desiccate and the sole reason he was never fully miserable was Bonnie Bennett. 

Bonnie had been his beacon of light since they’d clasped their cold, shaking hands together that night on the other side, both terrified of the future they weren’t sure they were going to have and strangely comforted by each other’s presence. She had been his hope when all else had been deemed lost, and at times, the only reason he managed to breathe. When the walls of his immortal life were threatening to close in on him in a choke hold, Bonnie Bennett was there to tell him it would be okay, and he would believe her. 

She’d been through just as much as he had, more, even, and he wasn’t going to fail her now. Not when they both needed each other so badly. Not when they were still healing from such insurmountable loss. Bonnie was his anchor, just as Damon was hers. 

“-So I told Caroline if she was serious we would house sit,” Bonnie grinned at Damon over their table in the Grill. He rolled his eyes. 

“You realise that means we have to sit in a corner and not touch anything, right? If she gets back from New Orleans and her couch is an inch further to the left than it was when she left, we’re dead.” 

“Okay, one,” Bonnie rolled her eyes back, shoving a handful of fries into her mouth then swallowing. “You’re already dead.”

“Funny, Bon.”

“Two,” she continued over him, “when we went to Italy last year she offered to watch the apartment for us.” 

“One,” Damon counteracted, grabbing the fries out of Bonnie’s hand at lightning speed and swallowing them himself, much to her protest, “I may be dead, but I’m still faster than you. Two, we didn’t  _ need  _ Caroline to house sit, because we’re terrible housekeepers and we don’t care about the state of our place.” 

“I’m not arguing,” Bonnie agreed, grinning, getting up. “Do you want another drink?” 

“Do I really need to answer that?” 

Damon watched his friend as she wandered up to the bar and talked to the bartender with her sunshine smile. He watched her shiny hair bounce around her shoulders playfully and the way her back curved as she leaned over the bar. He watched her throw back her head and laugh at something the bartender said. He watched Bonnie in everything she did; oh, how he noticed every move she made and every breath she took. 

It was different to the way he had watched Elena, he thought as they walked home from the bar late that night. The moment he’d met Elena he’d been drawn to every aspect of her. When he’d first met Bonnie, of course he’d found her beautiful, you’d be a fool not to, he thought to himself, but he used her for her power. Bonnie was merely a tool to Damon in those days. When they died together and became one unit of power and love marking each other like bloodstains, even then the way he noticed her wasn’t like the way he noticed her now. Then it had been something else, but back then he also had others holding him together; Elena, Stefan, Alaric, Enzo. 

It was different now. Now he only had Bonnie. Caroline and Alaric had kids to raise and a school to run and their own losses to deal with. And… God, it really didn’t stretch much further than that, did it? He and Bonnie lived just outside Mystic Falls, meaning they saw Matt decently often, and though times had changed drastically in terms of Damon and Matt’s relationship, it didn’t mean the same to him as it did to Bonnie. If anything, Matt was just another painful reminder of Elena’s lifeless body that lay in a coffin in a cold storage locker off route nine. 

No, it was just Bonnie. And that wasn’t a bad thing. Not at all. 

Bonnie Bennett was the glue that held him together. She was the one thing that made sense in this messed up existence they’d fallen into. So yes, perhaps the way he saw Bonnie was different these days. She was undeniably more than a best friend. Perhaps his twin flame. Perhaps the strings that connected his heart to his body or his humanity to his person. 

There was no way for Damon to look at Bonnie these days without seeing raging, passionate, burning  _ love. _

Two days after his observant walk home from the bar with her was Elena’s birthday. 

They had their traditions down to a tee by now. The first time they’d drunk to someone had been only six months ago, after they’d destroyed hell, on what would have been Bonnie and Enzo’s four year anniversary. Bonnie was detached and tear less, and Damon had found himself almost wishing she would cry, just so he could be her shoulder. After hours of not knowing what to do, he went for a walk when the idea struck him. He’d returned home fifteen minutes later with a bottle of wine brewed the year Enzo was born - 1876 - and asked Bonnie to drink to Enzo with him. It was the first time that day she’d cried, but the way she looked at him with sparkling eyes, the watery smile she’d given him, God, it had been worth it. 

The night of Elena’s birthday, long after Damon and Bonnie had drunk and laughed and talked and Bonnie had cried but Damon hadn’t quite been able to, he felt odd. That wasn’t unusual on these occasions. He knew he was sad, but he could never quite pinpoint any other feelings. He was going to see Elena again one day; he was sure of it. 

But one day sometimes felt too far away to feel okay. 

He lay on his bed staring at the roof. He thought perhaps it was sometime between two and three in the morning, but he stayed fully clothed, on top of his blankets. He could hear Bonnie listening to muffled music through the wall that separated their two rooms, which meant she was still awake too. His brain was travelling at hundreds of miles an hour; he was thinking about a thousand different thoughts, ones that circled around his head, ricocheting off every corner of his brain; memories of Elena, thoughts about Elena, remembering this moment he Elena and Bonnie had laughed about that one thing that one time, memories of Bonnie, thoughts of Bonnie…

He was thinking about kissing Bonnie. 

It’s not like he hadn’t caught himself thinking about it before. He remembered when they’d first moved in together, not too long after they’d lost everything; Enzo, Stefan. He felt bad for what he’d put her through. He was unbearable, to say the least. He didn’t sleep, he drank, both blood from the vein and booze from the bottle. She was just as heartbroken as he was and he wasn’t there for her at first. Though he’d left the deed to the Salvatore mansion to Caroline and Ric, Caroline was over at their place most of the time, Ric’s old flat, with Bonnie, both of them mourning. Damon hadn’t wanted to mourn. He hadn’t wanted to feel anything. Caroline had sat him down one night after a particularly messy kill and shaken him to his core. Asked him what was stopping him from switching off his humanity. He’d glared at her but he thought about it, and of course there was only one answer to that question: Bonnie. If he turned it off now, she would be left with nothing. 

“It’s Bonnie,” she’d replied. “And you’re the only thing stopping her from spiraling. Get it together, Damon. You need each other more now than ever.” 

Two days after that was when he finally snapped. He finally let in every emotion he’d been avoiding. And Bonnie, beautiful Bonnie, she’d sat with him until it was over. She’d hugged him and she’d cried with him and she never once let him go. That night, after he’d finally told her to get some sleep, he was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling just as he was now, listening to her breathing and her music through the wall, and remembering what it had felt like as she held him. When Elena had touched him, he had felt light, free. It was perfect. When Bonnie had touched him, it burned. It was a mix of pain and love and understanding. He had lain there and wondered what the burning feeling would feel like on his lips. 

He was doing that again now. He brushed his fingers over his lips gently and wondered. Today was one of the worst days of the year. He missed Elena like he was missing a limb, he thought he’d never taken a second with her for granted but now that she wasn’t here with him he thought that wasn’t true. Sometimes it hurt so badly he thought there was something, a stake, stuck inside of his heart. 

It hurt like that now. 

It hurt like that now, but he wanted to kiss Bonnie. 

He stood up and opened the door, walking out of his own room and into her’s without knocking. 

He couldn’t see her expression as he lay down next to her, but it wasn’t like they hadn’t stayed in the same bed before. 

“Hi,” he said softly through the darkness. 

“Hi,” she whispered back. She turned her phone off, and the music stopped. “You okay?” 

“No,” he said. “You?” 

“No.” 

They lay there silently for a minute, and then Damon rolled over swiftly and kissed her. 

He was right about the burning. It burned everywhere; his lips, his heart, his head, his whole body, he shivered as she  _ kissed him back  _ and he wondered if she felt it too. They kissed and it burned and he felt good. He felt alive. He felt new. It was a different feeling to kissing Elena. With Bonnie, he wasn’t sure what it was. She was his other half. She was something else entirely. 

“Damon,” Bonnie gasped, gripping his hair in her fists. “Damon, we can’t-” 

“Can’t what?” He stopped, his forehead pressed against hers, his breath hot on her face. “Can’t what, Bonnie? Be happy?” 

Bonnie froze for only a moment. 

“Enzo - Elena...-” 

“Would want us to be happy,” he whispered softly, his hands, with gentleness he reserved for very few people in his life, stroked her hair. “I want to be okay. I want you to be okay.” 

Bonnie let out a shaky breath and smiled at him through the darkness, her eyes sparkling. 

“We will be okay. We will.” 

She leaned over and pressed her lips to his, and the passionate fire of his love for her continued to rage. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, i hope you enjoyed! come and chat with me on twitter @elenaclqire!! <3


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